Repulse 02: Dead World
by Darkholm
Summary: Arriving in sector 227, the crew of the Repulse begins it's mission. Comments welcome and encouraged.


_**July 2298**_

"Captain's Log, Stardate 11126.5. Six weeks after leaving space-dock, the _Repulse_ has arrived at the boarder of Sector 227 to begin our mission of cataloging planets for mining or colonization and to locate any inhabitants of the area. The crew has been kept alert not only by the efforts of my Exec and Tactical Officer through drills but also the relaxed atmosphere engendered through the casual interaction I encouraged from the beginning. Crew efficiencies are maintaining a constant four point five across the board and all department heads are satisfied that we're ready to face whatever the universe might toss our way."

"On a personal note, in the four weeks since being taken under Kia's wing, Dr Travis has shown major improvement in his relations with the non-Terran members of the crew. He's more relaxed and seems actually willing to interact, going so far as to be seen with various crew members at tables in the Irish Star Pub. I'm confident that given time, the remains of the humano-centric tendencies that he grew up with will fade."

I end the morning's log entry and glance at the navigation chart on my command-chair's primary display. We'll encounter the first system in about an hour and I look at the ship's status on my secondary screen. Tactical is at condition two, not quite a Yellow-Alert, but at a slightly higher state of readiness than cruise mode. Science is fully manned, with additional power being allocated to sensor systems.

I look at my navigator, fresh from the Academy on his first real assignment. Here's where his training will really come into play, as he will be responsible for plotting orbital paths of the planets, placement and vectors of stray items like comets and asteroids, and guiding us in on a spiral path that will give the sensor systems maximum contact with planets and other objects for detailed analysis.

He appears calm and relaxed, but I've spent enough time around Caitians to know that he's about as wound up as an old fashioned clock, as the tip of his tail is twitching erratically. His fingers are deft and sure, though, as he configures his panel into system survey mode and prepares to record and calculate orbital elements.

Over at the science station, M'Rael is in about the same shape, her tail swishing as she prepares to collate the information that will be coming in from the various departments under her purview. Prior to this mission, she'd been number two in science, but when I tapped Vaire for my exec we'd both agreed that M'Rael was ready to become department head. So far she'd been doing fine, but now is when she'll prove if we were right.

My chief comm officer, Zan, is still running through various frequencies, both modern and old fashioned as she searches for any intelligent communications from the system ahead. Meanwhile Lt Ker'shall, my number two tactical officer, is preparing for the worst, making sure the systems are ready to activate at a moment's notice if any hostile action is encountered.

I review what data we have from _Ticonderoga_, and it's surprisingly little. K-5 star, about 2 billion years older than Sol; six planets of which one is in the habitable zone, and a fairly sparse Oort Cloud beyond a Neptune sized gas-giant.

'Well', I think to myself, 'that's why we're here, to see if there's anything worthwhile.'

As we approach, both M'Rael and T'Chral become very busy. He's taking data from the scanners and firming up orbital vectors while she's observing the different information come in from the various departments and turning it into a cohesive whole. I watch on my personal screen as things start filling in. The gas-giant is in an eccentric orbit, T'Chral has already noted that in less than ten-thousand years it'll approach the fifth planet close enough for tidal effects to knock the latter of orbit into a death spiral to finally burn up in it's own star.

Planetology has already shown that the giant itself is mostly methane hovering around minus 30c and the other planet is a rock, low density means little in the way of recoverable minerals.

Over the next couple hours, we spiral in, passing the fourth planet which is another rock. Seems this system might have formed out of a gas cloud low in heavier elements.

Planet three, however, is where things get interesting. Seems that at one time there might have been liquid water there. Calcium-carbonate formations dot half the surface, showing a possible sea-based ecosystem that formed limestone deposits much like Earth corals have done for eons. It's large enough to be class-M but the atmosphere is very thin now, more so than even out-gassing can account for and M'Rael and her people are working to try and figure it out.

By this time, six hours after we entered the system, Vaire comes up to relieve me and I head back to my quarters for an evening of reading.

I wake to alarms blaring and my wife hits the com-switch before I can reach over her. "Bridge, O'Connor here, what's going on."

Sord answers just as the alarms go silent again. "Coronal Mass Ejection, Captain. Initial trajectory put it heading towards us. Auto-defense system activated upon scanner register. However, Ensign Macht has calculated its course at fifteen degrees above the ecliptic. Closest approach will be twenty-eight million kilometers. No danger to the ship at this time."

I had been about to jump into my uniform and head to the bridge, but Sord's words put me at ease again. My ship is safe for now, "Very well Sord, maintain orbit then." I glance at the chrono, "I'll be there in three hours."

"Aye sir.""

I tap off the com and glance down into green eyes.

"If a CME of large enough size hit the planet, it could have sterilized it," Kia says. "There might have been a thriving ecosystem down there. If possible, we should collect samples as they could tell us how extensive life was before what ever happened killed the planet, if that is what happened."

"Analysis of the rock could also put a time on it," I say. She smiles back at me and I know what she wants. "You remember how to run something more than just a medical tricorder ?"

A purse lipped grin and a slap at my arm. "You just watch the data come in, gurrier."

I chuckle. "Alright, get with M'Rael in the morning, put together a team. Make sure you take someone from security."

She blinks. "Keiran, it's a dead world."

"Standard procedure grá. Besides, any trouble and they're training in rescue ops as well."

A sigh. "Oh very well, but not one of those hulking brutes that Mrolf is fond of. Maybe Vrash or Shraz."

"So it's settled then," I say, "and since we both need some more sleep if we're going to be at our best…" She nods and we snuggle back in.

#

The landing party has been on the surface for two hours when Kia calls up. "Keiran, we've come across a cave that is not natural. The entrance has a support structure that is definitely artificial in construction." I can tell from her voice that she's getting excited; a possible intelligent species.

"Does it appear safe to go in?"

"The surrounding rock is very old, but as far as we can see with our suit-lights, there are other supports further in. At present we believe that the hazard is low. There is one issue, however."

"That would be….."

Lt. Makran, the geologist comes on. "The rock is laced with manentite sir, which will prevent communications and transporter lock-on."

"That could pose a problem if anything happens."

Kia comes back. "Yes, but there's been nothing out on the surface, it's been scoured clean by something. If we're going to have a chance of finding any remnants of life, the cave is the best possibility."

"You have a plan though?" She may have spent the last two years at Starfleet Medical, but still remembers procedure so I don't have to remind her.

"Lt. Makran, Technician Zarkon and Shraz will enter while Ensign T'Pral and I wait at the entrance. I've already had com-relays sent down and they'll place them at intervals as they proceed."

I nod to myself, the relays still won't let us transport them out if they get in trouble, but will allow communications not only with the rest of the landing party, but the ship itself. "Very well, grá, have them go in but with caution. No telling how old that tunnel system is and it could be unstable."

"Understood, we'll keep you apprised of anything unusual." She signs off and I sit back to look over the report that planetology has just updated.

Background radiation in the mineral samples indicates that the planet had indeed been hit with a CME sometime in the 900 to 1200 year range. So if there had been any life, it was a millenia ago that it got wiped out. I notice that Kia has already accessed it so she knows that the tunnel the other three are going into is probably that old. She'll be sure they take precautions.

I'm still reviewing reports. Cosmology has indicated that the star is even more a variable than Sol. CME's would be a fairly regular occurrence, though given the number of possible trajectories there could have been enough time for not only life, but intelligent life to arise on the planet.

Luck of the draw really, life arises, gets a foothold, maybe a civilization develops, but not in time to find the technology that could have saved them either through shielding or having off-planet colonies.

At 1300 Kia reports that the tunnel system dives deeper and becomes fairly extensive, I order them to beam back up and I have M'Rael put together a plan to explore it. Fifteen crew-members in teams of three; a science officer or tech, an engineer and a security person in each team will beam down tomorrow to begin mapping and exploring it. There will also be a shelter with a base team of four at the entrance as well as a couple other teams spiraling out from there to see if there are any surface remains.

I make a change to the duty schedule; Zan will take center seat for second shift and I let her know that; she almost sounds happy at the thought, well at least as happy as an Efrosian ever sounds. With my science chief on the surface coordinating the teams from outside the caverns, Vaire will man the Science Station during first shift. At 1500 Vaire arrives to take con and I notify her of the duty change. She seems a little happy at that, she had been science officer before we both got our promotions and I think she missed it. I collect Kia from sick-bay and we head back to our quarters for a late dinner.

On the second day after beginning their spelunking, Team Three finds what appears to be a small town. Nooks in the cavern walls have been hand hewn, some smaller and some fairly spacious. They send up cast plates that have what appear to be some form of writing on them. They're laced with manentite so a shuttle has to retrieve them and I leave a note for Zan about the find. She'll probably spend her off-duty hours trying to tease a translation out of them.

Early the next day, Team One finds life. They've come across a small pool of water that still has living bacteria or the equivalent in it. They do extensive scans then transmit the data collected to the Med-Lab. Kia calls up a little later with the news that the base DNA structure is similar to that found everywhere else, close to bacteria found on humanoid worlds such as Earth, Vulcan and others.

The following morning, there's a message from Zan in my IRRD. There's no reference, either in pictograph or any other method that could give her a start in translating the apparent writing. The plates could be anything from a history text to a shopping list, no way to know currently. She's got them scanned into a secure database and is running algorithms on the whole collection now, but unknown whether the attempt will be successful.

The surface teams continue to comb through the tunnels, another small town is found and more plates sent up in a shuttle. More samples of bacteria as well as lichen living on the walls of a different cavern are scanned and Kia starts building a map of the remaining ecosystem.

The fourth day after we started our investigations, Team Five makes the breakthrough. A larger town, filling a cavern almost a hundred meters across and a score high contains not only more plates, these with pictographs, but fossilized bones as well.

I head to med-lab about the time the stasis container with the bones arrives and Kia is almost giggling in glee. After making sure the containment room is secure, she uses remotes to shut off the stasis field then pulls one bone out and deftly slices it open with a laser-scalpel then begins scanning the core.

A gasp, and she's removing what looks like powder and putting it into the genetic sequencer. "Be a few hours for the computer to process it, grá," she tells me, her face alight with the knowledge that we will be able to find out what one of the higher forms of life from this planet looked like. "Might just be the equivalent of a pet, but on the other hand, it might be one of the builders of the underground cities."

"A thousand years, and there's still enough material there?" I ask.

She nods, smiling widely, "I don't know if it's the density of the bone, it's very solid in structure, or the manentite that's part of the fossilization. But while it's long dead, there are peices of DNA analog. The computer, hopefully, can interpolate the various pieces and perhaps reconstruct a strand."

"We'll be able to see what it looked like in life?"

"A close approximation, but yes. We can build up a crude image of whatever this bone belonged to." She sighs happily, leans in with an arm around my waist and looks at the bone still lying on the table in the containment area. "To think that something a thousand years dead will, in a way, come back to life."

"A grand thing indeed," I say. Then think to myself 'This is what Starfleet is all about, not guarding sectors against an invasion that might not come but exploring and gaining new knowledge.'

We go and have lunch in the Pub and then she heads back to the lab while I return to the bridge and review updates from Headquarters, including a reply from them that they've dispatched an _Oberth_ with a full science team to thoroughly explore the planet. We've been given two more days here, then we're to continue our mission further into the sector.

Just before 1500, second shift starts arriving and I've handed off con to Zan when Kia comes onto the bridge beaming, "Want to see what the dominant life form on the planet looked like?"

The entirety of first shift stops and waits while second shift is almost squirming in their seats. Kia has the current science officer bring up a file and on the main screen is the first image of the builders of the underground towns.

Bi-pedal, a little less than two meters in height, bulky with no hair. I look at the image more closely then blink, "Couldn't determine gender?"

Kia sighs, "As far as the computer can tell, they didn't have one."

Chief Lathem, the second shift bridge engineer, speaks up, "Could they be like my people?"

Kia shakes her head, "No, Chief. Your N1 and N2 chromosomes are balanced in a way that your people express both genders at once. This person didn't seem to have the gender-specific parts in their genetic makeup, so they expressed neither."

"Then how could they reproduce?" Vaire asks. "Budding, some form of natural cloning, or something even more radical."

"I don't know if this was even representative of the race as a whole, could be a genetic anomaly. We'll need more samples if we hope to solve it." Kia's thinking of weeks here trying to unravel the puzzle.

"Unfortunately, we don't have much time," I put out and she looks at me. "Orders came in, they're sending the _Armstrong_ with a full team, and we're to continue on into the sector within two days."

She huffs at that, "It's our find here, Keiran. Can't you ask for more time to let us try and solve this little puzzle?"

"Unfortunately, grá, our orders were non-discretionary. 'Continue survey mission within forty-eight hours of receipt of this transmission.'" I glance at the chrono, "As of right now, we need to get underway in just under forty-five hours to be in compliance."

"Maorlathaigh damanta," she mutters in Gaeilge and I chuckle. (Damned bureaucrats)

"I agree totally, but we still answer to them."

A sigh, then, "I hope the teams can come up with something before then, otherwise someone else will make that breakthrough."

"You got the start on it, so your name will be at the top."

"Listen to Keiran, Keianna," Vaire puts in, "this was just the first system in the sector, and there are fifty more systems to look at."

Kia seems a little mollified at that, "I guess we can't be the ones on top of everything."

"And if you tried, you'd never get anything else done," I say.

"I suppose you're right," she mutters, still looking put out. "It's a shame that we can't stay and finish the job though," she says. A last, wistful look at the image on the screen before we head back to our quarters for dinner and some music.

I wake to an alarm blaring again, I untangle myself from Kia and tap the com open. "O'Connor here, now what's up, Sord?" I ask, still half asleep.

"Part of the tunnel system has collapsed Captain and team four is missing."

I'm instantly awake, and jump out of bed, "You think they're in there?" I ask as I start dressing.

"Unknown, Engineer Stron is already preparing to beam down with a crew to examine the cave in."

I'm almost dressed and my voice is only slightly muffled by the under-tunic I'm slipping into, "Ship to condition three." As my head clears the turtle-neck I see that Kia has also been getting herself into uniform. "Dr. DeCoursey will be in sick-bay, I'll be on the bridge in three minutes."

"Acknowledged, Sord out." The com clicks off and I'm already headed for the door, shrugging into my duty-tunic, Kia right behind me, also pulling her tunic on.

#

When I exit the lift I immediately start passing orders, "Sord, boost the gain on the targeting scanners, maybe we can punch through the manenite interference with them," he bares his teeeth and heads to tactical. "Ensign T'Vral, put us in forced, geo-synch orbit; I want us 200 klicks above the ground base at all times." My number three helmsperson nods and begins altering the ships orbital path while she coordinates with Chief Turner, the night shift navigator.

I look over at B'Shal; I can tell he's nervous, "Lt M'Rael is asking to talk to you, sir."

"Good, I want to talk to her as well." He transfers the com-signal to my chair. "M'Rael, what the hell was a team doing in the tunnels at night?" I'm a bit peeved; there were orders in place to prevent things like this from catching us unaware.

"They did so against my orders sir. Several of the teams wanted to split-shift; try to find more samples, but I told them that no one was to be in the tunnels after 1900 or before 0700."

"Do you know what caused the cave-in?" I hear another swish of the door and glance to see Shran arrive looking alert though she probably hasn't gotten any more sleep than I have.

"Ground sensors recorded a magnitude 2.4 quake approximately fifteen minutes ago. When we were woken by the alert, we discovered a team missing. An IRRD message was in my unit, marked as low-priority which is why my IRRD didn't wake me. Engineer Parker and PO Karshtam went into the tunnels for a quick search and that's when we found out about the collapse in a side tunnel, sir."

"How long ago was that message sent?"

"Time record indicates 0015, sir."

I glance at the chrono and it's just 0130; I've had barely four hours sleep. "Well, if they survive this little adventure, they'll almost wish they hadn't. Has the Chief arrived?"

A short pause, "PO Shraz informs me that Mr Stron and his team just entered the tunnels captain, PO Vrash is with them."

"At least someone obeys orders around here," I mutter then, "Very well, keep the Exec in the loop."

"Aye sir, surface base out."

I look back at Shran and she's not looking happy. "While their timing could have been better, you can't fault them for wanting to get as much as possible done," she says.

"Exuberance be damned, Vaire, they disobeyed orders of the senior officer on the ground and if they live, I'm going to make them regret it." She nods, one thing to show a little initiative, quite another to flaunt the rules.

I thumb a switch, record a log update on this little incident then thumb off the recorder and look back at my Exec, she has her head tipped, listening to her ear-bug, "More information from the surface, Keiran. Seems they at least loaded in new storage vacuoles, so they had approximately twelve hours of air available to them."

"Won't help if they were caught under that mess, but it does give us more time if they did survive that. Least they followed that bit of procedure." She nods and goes back to coordinating the various departments.

I'm reviewing options that we have, anything from a phaser bore from above, to using the ship's main phaser battery to cut the top right off the mountain they're under when Kia comes out of the lift, hypo-spray in hand. "Just a little something to keep you and Vaire alert, grá." Stimulant then, we'll pay for it later, but my wife knows that neither of us will sleep till the missing crew is aboard, alive or dead.

She hits me up followed by a quick kiss then gives Shran a dose, then heads back to sick-bay. Vaire just looks at me and shakes her head ruefully and continues to receive updates from the surface.

It's about a half hour later when Stron finally gets back to me, "Captain, to bore through the original tunnel and place supports will take approximately ten point six hours."

"Your estimate is based on what factors, chief."

"We used reflection seismology to measure the length of the collapsed section. There is one hundred twenty meters of rubble blocking the tunnel, sir. While a phaser-bore could cut through that in a very short time, we need to proceed cautiously for two reasons. First, bracing must be installed at very close intervals and second is that someone might be trapped under the rubble, and running the bore at full intensity would defeat the purpose of trying to rescue them."

Right, the phaser-bore vaporized rock, turning the compounds into disassociated atoms. What it would do to even a suited crewmember didn't bear thinking about for too long. "Understood Chief, be aware that they have less than ten hours of breathable air remaining in their vacuoles, so time is of the essence."

"Acknowledged Captain, I shall endeavor to reduce that time without sacrificing safety for either my people or those trapped."

He signs off and I look over to my tactical officer, "Any progress on the scanners, Mr Sord?"

He looks back at me and shakes his scaled head, "Nothing, sir; the scanners are unable to penetrate the manentite. It's a shame that it can't be used in ship contruction to provide a sensor screen, but the alloys are too fragile to be used on hulls."

"I know. Keep at it, and try to think up other ideas as well." He nods, baring his double row of shark-like teeth, then turns back to his console.

I review any progress being made, Stron thinks he can cut perhaps fifteen minutes off his original estimate, but that's still too long. Sord is still trying to fine-tune the targeting scanners while Vaire works on the main sensors and Zan, who arrived a little bit after I did, tries everything she can to punch a com-signal through.

I'm looking through reports and still trying to come up with a miracle when the turbo-lift door opens and I hear a rumbling. Turning, I see Ensign Vract rumbling towards me, "My pardon Captain, but I request to be beamed down, sir."

"Ensign, you were one of the first people I thought of, but after reviewing medical information I declined to recruit you. Do you know what menantite can do to your system?" Vract's our lone Horta, his people EAT rock, he could put a tunnel right to the trapped crew in perhaps an hour, the one problem being...

"Sir, I know the risk. While I might not be able to reject all the menantite, I still believe I can get a tunnel to them. I looked over Commander Stron's status and he can't reach them before their air runs out."

Menantite is a systemic poison to Horta's, kind of like arsenic is to humans. If he takes in too much, it could kill him. Luckily, as he says, they're somewhat discriminatory in what they absorb, he can refuse to absorb most of it, leave a trail of menantite slurry in his wake, but some will get into his body.

The lift door opens again and Kia comes out and goes right to Vract. Kneeling next to him, she puts a hand on one of his sensory nodes, "Vract, I saw your med-trace here and I know why. I have to say no after I read the assay reports. The level of menantite in the rock down there is too high and with the length of the tunnel you'd have to dig, there's a good chance you'd take in a fatal dose."

"Ma'am, you're correct that I could die, but if I don't do this, Torres WILL die." Belinda Torres is the engineer of the trapped team, seems the two of them have struck up a friendship. "I know I can reach them in time, and if I don't do this, I could never face my brood-mates again."

One thing that I remembered was that Horta's were very protective of their own. His 'mother' had sabotaged mining equipment, killed those she knew were intelligent because she was protecting her 'children' and didn't have any way to communicate that to the miners. Vract may be the only one of his people on _Repulse_, but it seems he's adopted Torres as family.

Kia's still trying to reason with him, "Oh you crazy rock-eater, you're willing to risk dying to find people who might be dead already if they were in the tunnel section that collapsed?"

"Until we get to them, ma'am, we don't know that, and if we don't try, they will die."

She seems almost ready to invoke medical over-ride but I look up from the update I've just read and cut her off, "He's right, grá." A look full of tears to me and I smile sadly, "Stron can't reach them in time if they are still alive, Vract here can; and you or I would do no less for those we call family."

She stares at me for a moment then looks back down at him, "You just take care and get your pancake self back up here and we'll see what we can do to clear you out, you hear me, Ensign?"

His rumble is softer, "Yes, ma'am."

She kisses her hand and pats a sensory nodule with it. Then after a stricken look to me, heads back to sick-bay to prepare it for a poisoned Horta.

I look back at Vaire, from the set of her antenna, she's about as worried as Kia is, but it doesn't touch her face. "Vaire," she looks at me, "do we have any of the old life-support belts in stores?"

#

Now her antenna go low and point right at me, she knows why I'm asking, "You are not going down there."

I stare right back at her, "In this case, I am. I have three trapped crewmembers and another one who's going to risk his life to get them out, I WILL be there."

She looks ready to argue then huffs, twenty-six years of knowing me makes her realize that it's a lost cause. She checks supply then says, "We have three aboard, marked for 'unusual circumstance use' only."

"I think this qualifies," I look down at my young engineer. He was too, not all the eggs on Janus IV hatched together, some waited upwards of ten years, he was one of the last to hatch. "I'm using that because I'm going to be right behind you the entire way, Mr. Vract, and it'll protect me better than a suit if you accidentally spray my way."

He rumbles a little, a Horta chuckle. I look back at Vaire, "Have the quartermaster break one out and bring it to Transporter One, you're in command till we get back…WITH the rest of our crew."

She nods to me and Vract and I head for the lift as Vaire remains at Science, she can command from there as well as the center-seat, and she may come up with something else too.

When I and my young officer reach the transporter, Chief Thompson is already there, "Belt is charged full Captain, just remember; three hours of life support is all its rated, so be sure you're in the shelter down there or back aboard before it shuts off."

"Got it, Chief," then I'm putting it on as Vract climbs onto the platform. I join him, activate the belt and a soft-green glow encompasses my body. I look at Krannick, my number two transport officer, "Put us right outside the tunnel entrance, Lieutenant." He makes some adjustments then nods, "Energize."

My vision blurs, then clears again and we're looking down the tunnel to see Stron and his party coming out. "Commander Shran informed me of your plan, Captain." He looks down at Vract, "Take your time and be sure to return, Ensign. Your work has been very satisfactory to this point."

Vract rumbles and shifts a bit, clearly embarrassed by the praise just heaped on him. Which for a Vulcan was exactly what it had been. Then he enters the tunnel and I'm only a couple meters behind him.

We reach where Stron and his crew had been using the phaser-bore. The surface is pitted and there's a fine dusting of menantite on the floor, it's also fairly resistant to phaser-fire. The cleared section was about twelve meters deep and Vract goes into it, sets himself then starts his eating jets.

It was almost like an old-fashioned sprinkler, as jets of highly corrosive acid eat away at the rock, turning it into slurry that he sucks into his vacuoles. Most would be processed into more acid through a chemical reaction in his body; some would become energy for him through a similar process. He leaves a thin stream behind him that glitters slightly, the menantite slurry that he's rejecting. He's still going to absorb some, can't be helped.

The menantite would build up in his circulatory system. The pentagonal crystals binding to cells in his body, mainly his nervous system. It would block transmission of not only conscious control but autonomic functions as well. Menantite poisoning of a Horta meant total shutdown of their higher functions, turning them into what they use to call a vegetable. If it didn't shut everything down completely and kill them.

Vract doesn't even slow down, in six minutes he's doubled the length of the rescue tunnel. Stron's phaser-bore set to its lowest power level had taken an hour to get the same distance.

I'm following a bit behind, the less the belt has to protect me against, the longer its storage cell would last. I'm crouched, as his tunnel is only a meter and a half high and I'm taller than that, but it's wide enough that I'm not entirely cramped.

About fifty meters in, he makes a right turn, "Problem, Ensign?" I ask through my wrist-com.

He has his voder set to the same com-frequency, "It wasn't straight, sir, I'm following the looser rock that shows where the original tunnel was."

Natural tunnelers, they could follow a thin thread of a particular mineral, or in this case, the rubble of a tunnel collapse. One thing Spock had noted on Janus, with a Horta doing the tunneling, you didn't have to worry about support bracing as the acid fused the rock that it didn't dissolve, leaving a smooth, strong passageway.

"How are you holding up?"

"It's very...disorienting, sir."

"Sounds like me after a binge night of drinking everything under the sun. Too bad we can't feed you something that'd break down the menantite and let it just flow out."

"There are things than can do that, sir," he hadn't stopped spraying and eating through this, didn't use his mouth to talk. "Unfortunately, as the Doctor would say, 'the cure is worse than the disease'."

"Well, do your best, Mr Vract. If we have to, we can get Stron and his little toy back in here to finish the job."

"Aye, sir," and he keeps going, dissolving and eating through the rubble blocking our way.

Fifty-five minutes after he'd started, he breaks clear into a cavern and there's excited shouts over the com.

Ensign Torres, the one Vract had mentioned earlier, is the first, "Vract, you stupid pile of rubble, you know what the menantite is going to do to you?" I guess she knows as she comes over and puts a gloved-hand on one of his sensory nodules, "you crazy fool."

"Nice to see you as well, Belinda," he rumbles, but it's stuttering…he's in trouble.

I'd brought a couple com-relays and dropped them in appropriate spots, "O'Connor to M'Rael, we're through and they're alive, get a grav-sled to the surface and in here now."

"Grav-sled is already here, sir, Mr Stron had it sent down as soon as he reached the shelter, and we're moving now."

I look at the other two in the cavern, Ensign Karesh of biology and Crewman 2nd Zarn, one of Chief Mrolf's security people. They're looking everywhere but me, Torres doesn't care that I'm here, she's trying to comfort her friend. I'll dress them all down later. "Once we have Mr Vract on the sled, everyone out, pronto…got it?"

"Aye Captain," comes from all three. Five minutes later Stron and M'Rael arrive, towing a grav-sled behind them. We all chip in to lift Vract onto it as he masses the better part of three-hundred kilos. Then with four of us in front and the other two pushing from behind, we tow him out of the tunnel.

Once outside, we load him into the shuttle that's waiting and it takes off. Torres looked like she wants to follow, but a glare from me puts her down again. "Everyone…shelter…now."

We file through the airlock into the quick-set shelter that had been put up to support the exploration crew. They'd slept and ate in there, getting resupplied by transporter daily. Stron, M'Rael, and our three juniors are the only one's inside when I step through the inner-hatch. They've all doffed their helmets and I turn off my belt.

#

"I sent the rest to the ship, Captain," Stron says. "Given the circumstances I would surmise that our time here is done."

It was a bold step, pre-guessing his captain, but the intuition that his record had showed me was still working good. "Exactly right, Chief. Soon as we're done here, have a crew tear this thing down and get it back to the ship." He nods and I turn to the three intrepid explorers. "What the bleeding hell did you three think you were doing?"

They all look like kicked puppies, Karesh is the first one to speak up, "With the deadline approaching, sir, I thought we could get some more searching done, maybe find more bones for genetic typing."

I glare at him, "So you decided that not only the orders of a superior but also the procedures laid down were inconvenient and purposely ignored both."

"Well, no sir…"

"Then what, Ensign. I can't believe it was stupidity, we usually weed out the stupid one's at the Academy." He turns bright green and wisely shuts up. I look at Torres, "And you, engineer, what kind of bribe got you to forgo common sense?"

I can see that she's scared I'll toss her out of Starfleet for this, and I could too. What they did is a court-martial offense. But she's firm in her resolve, "No bribe sir, I agreed with Thorm that we might be able to find something to help solve the mystery."

"Oh, an engineer interested in biological reproduction, is it?" she blushes a little at that, "When did you switch tracks?"

"Mysteries are meant to be solved, sir, and from what I've heard, this is a doozy."

"Well, as you've now found out, there's a reason for procedures and following orders, Ensign." She doesn't argue after that so I turn my heat on PO Zarn. Him I wouldn't even need a court-martial for, I could just kick him out now and put him in the brig for the next year. "So how did you get involved, Zarn?"

"I woke up to them getting ready and followed my orders, sir. No personnel to go in the tunnels without security escort."

"Did it ever occur to you to let them know that by going in at that time, THEY were disobeying orders?"

"Sir, they're officers." I sigh in resignation, he's fresh from security training and since they don't use officers in security anymore, all he's had is six months of Starfleet Orientation and the one year of specialized training he needed to do his job. One thing they pounded into the enlisted personnel was 'Officers are always to be obeyed'.

"Well, crewman, in some cases the enlisted person has to remind said vapor-headed officers," Karesh and Torres both look embarrassed at that, "that what they're doing goes against what higher officers have put in place. So at such times, you DO need to speak up; understood?"

He nods, "Yes sir, understood sir."

I look back at my chiefs of Engineering and Science, "So what do we do with these three miscreants?"

Stron I think is taking the 'fear me' route as he says, "Regulations are clear, court-martial is indicated for any disobedience that results in either the loss of life or the potential for that to happen. As Mr Vract did endanger his life, and might still lose it as the result of performing this rescue, there can be no doubt."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the three almost squirm then I look at M'Rael. She looks them over like they were a tasty morsel or something then says, "While in principle I agree with Commander Stron, they are still relatively new to the ship. I suppose some leniency could occur."

"Very well, Lt M'Rael. While I'll keep their records clean," and I stare at the three and they cringe, "this time. Some sort of punishment must be dealt out. Mr Zarn," he looks up at me, "to remind you that sometime a cooler head must express itself even when it thinks it shouldn't; your duty shift for the next two weeks will be on brig-detail."

He looks resigned. Since we have no one in the brig at the moment, it pretty much means staring at empty cubes and doing checks on the force-barriers to make sure they work. Very boring as the main computer access is, by necessity, restricted so he can't even really entertain himself there.

I look at Torres, "Mr Stron, do you have a suitable detail for your engineer?"

"Two weeks as the anti-matter and plasma distribution assistant, with manual checks of both occurring twice a shift." Torres closes her eyes and groans. Oh he's being mean, a manual check means that Torres actually has to go into the anti-matter chamber. I'd been in there once and the magnetic field made it seem like ants were crawling all over my body.

Karesh is the last and M'Rael doesn't even need prompting, "Two weeks in the Botany Lab, and no bridge detail." She knew her people, the Botany Lab was almost as boring as the brig right now, and since she'd been cycling all her officers through the secondary bridge station, he'd miss four chances to be seen by the 'big people'.

I look over our three 'truants', "As an additional punishment, you're all restricted from the Pub for the duration as well." They all look like I've taken away their favorite toy; I knew all three spent quite a bit of off-duty time in there.

Two look absolutely dejected; Torres seems to be made of sterner stuff, "One request, sir?" I glare at her and she looks me right in the eye, "Request permission to visit Sick-Bay daily sir, until Vract is out."

"So long as Doctor DeCoursey clears it, then yes." I look back at Stron, "Get that crew down here and take this place apart, no more explorations. Let _Armstrong_'s crew handle it and I'll warn them about the potential cave-ins as well." He nods and I activate my com, "O'Connor to _Repulse_, six to beam up, energize when ready." A few seconds later and we're on the pads and I turn my belt over to Chief Thompson and head for Sick-Bay, Torres right behind me after she removes her e-suit.

#

When we arrive, Kia and Dr. Travis, her number two, are already in the containment area, medical steri-fields enveloping both. Vract is on a platform with the two med officers setting up something to try and flush the menantite from him. They'll run his circulation fluid through a filter system that will clean the mineral from what he uses for blood, but the crystals already latched onto his nervous system are another matter.

Torres leans on the table in front of the observation window, nose almost pressed to the transparent aluminum and I see tears in her eyes. Inside I soften, seems the two of them have struck up quite a friendship. I do see it as another part of a learning experience though, "Just remember this the next time you think you know better than those who've been out here a while, Ms Torres."

She looks at me, the pain evident in her tear-filled eyes, "Yes sir, I will." She looks back at Vract as the two doctors finish their connections and 'blood' starts flowing through the filter system, "Is he going to be alright?"

"I don't know, he took a lot of that in, I know that Kia and Raymond will do everything they can. But it all depends on how many of the crystals have already bonded and if they can remove those somehow."

Kia comes out of the containment room and comes over to us, "It's going to be touch and go, and I'm still not sure we got things going in time. While you were planet-side, however, I did do some research and there's a couple things I can try to displace the crystals that have already latched on to his brain and other areas."

"Understood, grá. Ms Torres here would like to visit him daily, if possible."

"That can be arranged, I don't know when he'll regain consciousness, and you'll have to be in steri-field, mainly to protect you. He's squirting acid at random intervals, so very dangerous to be near him right now without one."

Torres nods at that. "Could I go in now?" she almost pleads.

Kia looks at her, then nods, "Steri-field belts are just outside the door to the room, don't dislodge any of the connections." Torres nods again and heads in, going up to the platform and putting a glowing hand on one of Vracts sensory nodules, almost stroking it in a way.

I look at my wife and she's got a soft look on her face as she watches not Torres, but Travis. I look at her number two and he's watching Torres. He'd come aboard very reticent about non-humans, but had made progress in the last few weeks. He was still a little stand-offish around certain species, Hortas being one but he'd done his job perfectly in helping Kia in there just now, but I could tell that during it he'd been uncomfortable.

Now he was watching Torres, a human, sitting with that 'pan-pizza', as The Captain called them, almost caressing him in a way, with tears flowing freely. Seeing people interact with others in the Pub or Rec-Deck was one thing, seeing a Human obviously torn up at the thought of someone she called a friend, no matter what that friend looked like, here in Sick-Bay fighting for his life, was having an impression on him.

I give Kia a kiss then head back to the bridge to take over and enter my log of this little adventure.

**NCC-1863 **_**U.S.S Repulse**_

Miranda class exploration cruiser

Dedication Plaque: "I long for the solitude  
>of a sunset at sea, and the beauty of the stars."<p>

**Command Crew** (in order of seniority)

Keiran O'Connor - Human male, Earth - 53 Terran years old - Captain, Commanding Officer

tre'Vaire Shran - Andorian female, Andor - 49 Terran years old - Commander, First Officer

Sord - Ganorian male, Ganor Prime - 56 Terran years old - Lt. Commander, Chief Tactical Officer/Second Officer

Stron - Vulcan male, Vulcan - 87 Terran years old - Lt Commander, Chief Engineer

Keianna DeCoursey - Human female, Earth - 47 Terran years old - Lt. Commander, Chief Medical Officer

Zan Ra-khargorstia - Efrosian female, Efros - 38 Terran years old - Lieutenant, Chief Communications Officer

M'Rael - Caitian female, Cait - 35 Terran years old - Lieutenant, Chief Science Officer

Janitha Frazier - Human female, Benicia - 34 Terran years old - Lieutenant, Chief Helm Officer


End file.
